Never
by muchachaporfavor
Summary: There is a way to end all evil, otherwise mankind would have been defeated by earlier forms of it. But there is a catch: There must be a good great enough to stop it. But who can stop a Grudge? Takes place as if the Grudge 2 had never happened.


Author's Note: After seeing the Grudge 2, I was thoroughly scared and miffed. I don't care if Kayako wants everyone to feel her suffering. She has GOT TO GO. This story isn't a one-shot, no duh. It'll have at least three chapters. I'm not sure if I can make any more than that, but hey, I'll try. **OH AND BY THE WAY… **the spaced italic quotes from the two movies are my transitions. I think it's a rather unique way to transition, don't you?

Summary: There is a way to end all evil, otherwise mankind would have been defeated by earlier forms of it. But there is a catch: There must be a good great enough to stop it. But who can stop a Grudge? Takes place as if the Grudge 2 had never happened.

**Never – 01 Ghost Story**

Wrath.

It's one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Many people across the world mistake wrath as merely undescribable anger. Wrath, however, is not just anger, no matter how great the magnitude. It is revenge inspired by anger—by rage—

by a powerful grudge.

" _D o n ' t g o i n t h a t h o u s e . . . "_

A squeal erupted into the sky thick with gray, rain-ridden clouds. Christina Tacicas grinned from ear to ear as she leaned out the rental car window, letting the wind blow through her long brown curls. She laughed and waved at a group of schoolgirls on the side of the street. "Hello! I'll be attending your school soon!" she called, her voice squeaking with excitement.

"Christie! Stop that!" hissed 13-year-old Michael Tacicas. Christie merely eased herself inside and grinned at her brother, who rolled his eyes at her. She leaned over and rubbed her hand through his shoulder-length curls, mussing it up.

"Aww! Are you embarrassed of me, Mikey? I'm hurt!" she chimed. Mikey laughed, too. Unlike most brothers and sisters, they were very close and hardly ever really fought. Maybe it was because they were only two and a half years apart in age.

"He's right, sweetie." Christie rose her eyebrows at her mom, Deena.

"You should calm down a little," grumbled her grumpy father, Gus. She merely beamed back at them, laughing a bit.

"Oh, I beg to differ. You see, dear family, I am in a car. A very special car. Do you know why it's special?"

"It's Japanese," Mikey exclaimed.

"True, true. Buuut…" Christie paused for dramatic effect. "This very car just so happens to be taking me to my dream: To live in Japan! And not just anywhere in Japan, but in Tokyo! This is the HEART of Japan! There's just GOT to be a big videogame company around here somewhere. Ooh, I wonder if they have tours… Oh, can we please please PLEASE go on a tour of a videogame company?"

Gus opened his mouth to retort a firm "no" when Deena piped up, "That sounds like a good idea. It'd certainly give you a little jump start in following your career as a videogame designer, wouldn't it?" She gave her husband a look that said he had no say in whether or not their daughter was going on a tour. Gus sighed and nodded in agreement.

This began a very long explanation of how much Christie appreciated her parents and her ideas for plots, scenery, characters, and other such things involved with videogames.

It took a good ten minutes to get Christie to stop talking. She gave one last big smile at her entire family before her lips came back together in a smaller, closed smile. She turned her head, blue eyes darting back and forth, attempting to soak in everything in this one car ride. Mr. Tacicas was driving more slowly now, to allow them all some time to look around. After all, this street was very deserted. Christie was about to wonder why when she spotted something strange.

Her head turned as they drove by, her eyes not leaving the sight until it was obscured by trees. There was a charred dilapidated home hidden behind a gate. Looking around, she noticed that none of the houses around it were anywhere near such a condition. It seemed rather strange to her. Tokyo was such a big place. Obviously the people would need many houses to give everyone shelter. So why would the city just leave a house in ruins like that? Wouldn't it at least be renovated…?

For a moment she got a bad feeling, but then logic sang through again. Of course, it must have been some kind of landmark. She leaned against the window and blinked, thinking to herself that something very important must have happened there.

_" I j u s t w a n t h e r t o l e a v e m e a l o n e . . . "_

"Hello, I'm Christie Tacicas. I'm sixteen years old and I want to make videogames when I get out of college," Christie announced, bowing a little to the class. The teacher put a hand on her shoulder and she stood up straight again.

"Thank you. You may sit in the empty seat in the middle row," the teacher instructed. Christie smiled in gratitude and she bounced over to her desk, sitting down. The teacher then resumed his lesson. Christie immediately took out a sheet of notebook paper to scribble down notes. She had only missed the first two days of school, but this was the Japanese Language class that all students were required to take, in order to teach or better them in the national language. She heard a faint giggling but paid no attention to it. Then, a folded piece of notebook paper flew onto her desk. Christie blinked in surprise and looked around.

She locked eyes with a good-looking Asian boy for a split second before she caught sight of the two girls waving at her. They seemed like popular girls, seeing as they were so pretty, but that didn't intimidate Christie. No, Christie was a social butterfly. She had no trouble when it came to stepping all over the boundaries of labels. Christie smiled at them and carefully unfolded the note.

"Hey," it read, "Our names are Dani (the reddish hair) and Haruka (the black hair). We should like… hang out or something after school today. We wanna take you to this really awesome house."

Christie nodded and leaned over, writing. The girls looked at each other and smiled michievously. They quickly replaced their suspicious smiles with friendly ones when Christie looked up and tossed them the note. It now read underneath the original message, "Hey, thanks! That sounds cool. By the way, can I have the notes from yesterday and the day before?" The two looked at each other, silently conveying the message, "What a nerd."

_" I ' m n o t l e a v i n g u n t i l I k n o w w h y m y s i s t e r i s d e a d . . . "_

Christie found that she had a lot of classes with Dani, Haruka, and that boy, who she had learned was named Jason Wu. She was actually assigned a seat next to the boy in her seventh period class. Christie had decided to sneak a glance at him when the dismissal bell rang. Everyone began packing up their things immediately and bolting for the door. Jason packed his things at his own pace, as if he didn't care too much that school was out.

Dani and Haruka scurried over to her desk, both of them giving Jason a flirtatious look as they arrived next to her. "So Christie, are you ready to go to that house?" Christie had just closed her messenger bag when she noticed Jason stiffen, then get up and slowly walk out of the classroom. She wondered briefly what that had been about.

"Yeah, pretty much. I mean, there's nothing else to do at home except keep unpacking boxes." She laughed and said, "I'd rather do anything else!" The other two laughed, and they all walked out together. They passed Jason on the way out, and Christie locked eyes with him again. This time, instead of indifferent, they seemed protective. They even seemed a little scared. Christie felt a pressure on her chest, as if a heavy dictionary were on top of it. Unnerved, she looked away, laughing nervously at the other girls' curious looks.

Dani and Haruka chatted about all the latest gossip, giving Christie tips on who to stay away from and who was cool and whatnot. Christie merely nodded and took in what they had to say, but didn't put much belief in any of their rumors. As they walked, she began to notice that this was the way she walked to go to and from school. This morning she had realized that her little route caused her to pass right by that landmark house.

"Hey, are we going to that burned up house?" Christie asked, blinking curiously.

The other two girls looked as if a really horrid secret had been let out. "You… you know about it?" Dani asked, trying to smile.

Christie shrugged, but thought to herself that their expressions had been a little suspicious. "I pass by it on the way to school. And home, I guess. Was there a fire? And what's so important about it that it's a landmark?" Dani and Haruka's expressions immediately turned to that of mirth. They thought themselves very lucky that Christie was as oblivious about the house as they had thought. The fact that she thought it was a landmark would make their prank even easier to accomplish.

"Oh, yeah! It's a total landmark. But dude, it's soooo sad what happened there." Haruka said, putting on a sympathetic look.

"Yeah, and a little creepy." Dani added, laughing.

Christie smiled, too, and urged, "Well, go on, then! Tell me what happened."

"Well, there was this… this famous girl that lived here."

"Yeah, she was an actress!"

"Uh-huh! And she had a husband and a little boy."

"But she was murdered by uh… an obsessed fan."

"Totally tragic. And this crazy American girl tried to burn the house down after she killed her boyfriend here. That's why it's so charred and trashed and junk. You know, they say her and her little boy's spirits still live here. You just gotta go in the closet upstairs and count to ten, and you'll see her!"

Christie's eyes widened, but she was smiling. "Wow, cool! I love supernatural crud like that. I used to pretend I was a supernatural investigator when I was a kid, you know. It doesn't really scare me. It just… interests me." The girls nodded in agreement as they came to the front gate of the house.

"Well, if you're not scared, let's see if you can go in and do the closet thing! Most girls at the school won't do it. Only Haruka and I were brave enough," Dani explained as she pushed open the gate and stepped into the yard. Haruka followed close behind, smirking when Christie couldn't see.

"So did you see the ghosts?" Christie asked, interested. She was about to walk in when a strong force collided with her side and sent her crashing to the sidewalk. Christie let out a loud yelp of surprise and pain as she scraped her elbow. She twisted a little to find Jason sprawled over her side, his bag and its contents everywhere.

"Oh, m'God! I'm so sorry!" Christie exclaimed, helping him as he sat up. He smiled sheepishly at her, and she saw a look of hope in his eyes. But hope for what? A chance to talk to her? Her heart leapt at the idea and she began collecting his things.

"No, it's my fault completely. I shouldn't have been so caught up in my thoughts…" he replied, also picking up his things. Christie didn't catch it, since she was determinedly concentrating on his school supplies, but Jason shot Dani and Haruka a very icy cold glare. The two girls looked at each other, appalled that he'd choose such a nerd over them, and they stalked off, kicking the house's gate as they left. Christie didn't even notice them leaving as she gathered the last pencil, handing him his stuff.

"H-here," she stuttered. He smiled his thanks and their fingers touched as he took his things, causing Christie to blush a little. He got up and offered her a hand, which she gladly took. "Thanks. My name is—ow!" Christie winced and looked down at her knee. It was scraped so badly that blood ran down her leg. "What the-?! How did THAT happen?!" she exclaimed loudly in astonishment.

Jason pointed to a part of the sidewalk that was jagged and jutting out. "I'm so, so sorry! Here, lean a little on me. I'll walk you home."

Christie shook her head. "No, no! I'm sure you live farther away… You don't have to go through the trouble. Seriously, it's not like I'll die." She laughed a little, and so did he.

"It's okay. I live around here, anyway. And I don't want you passing out or anything from blood loss." Jason took her arm and guided it around his neck. Christie sighed submissively and leaned on him a little as they began walking.

"Well, fine. But only this once! I swear, if something like this happens again, I don't want you to trouble yourself with it, okay?" she asked. He merely smiled at her and shrugged a little. Christie looked down at their shoes, too flustered to look at him. Thus, she didn't see the short look of triumph that gave way to grave wariness as Jason gave one last glance at the house.

_" T h e r e w a s s o m e t h i n g i n t h a t h o u s e . . . "_


End file.
